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Chitraka, Sanskrit for the speckled one, is perhaps the origin of the word cheetah. The animal however, has disappeared from the country. 1952 was the year when the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) was declared extinct in India. The last of these cats is believed to have been killed in 1947. A flagship species of the grasslands, scrublands and open forests, today the cheetah populations have been restricted to isolated pockets in Africa and Asia as the dryland ecosystems have been drastically...